The Pride Of Basque Country

"The Pride of Basque Country" is an exciting new feature i am delighted to be adding to this blog. Its a soms currently featuring on FM Style by one of its members Liam. He goes by the username "The Magik Prat" and is from Cambridge in New Zealand. For those of you who don't know what a soms is it stands for "story of my season" and aswell as taking on the challenge he is doing a story on it. His past efforts have been of very high quality and i am personally very excited he has chosed to do one on Real Sociedad. The first 2 installments are below.

The Pride Of Basque Country Part 1

Sunday 17th June 2006, 5:30pm

Deflation. Pure and simple deflation. I was in despair. My beloved Real Sociedad had been relegated. I didn't think this was possible. I thought we were better than this. Throughout the season there had been flashes that we may be able to stay up. Thoughts came rushing back to me of such games. The thrilling Three all draw with Valencia where there were Three goals in the final ten minutes. Including a stunning last minute equaliser from Nihat. But it just wasn't consistent enough and the club was dragged into the relegation zone for much of the season. It came down to the final day where we needed a win at all costs against Valencia. But we couldn't do it. Again drawing with the Valencians three apiece. By the time the third own goal of the game hit the net I was already out of the stadium. Tears streaking down my face. I couldn't face up to the team when they did their lap of honour, knowing they had let the fans down at having been cosigned to Liga BBVA. It wasn't good enough. The club knew they had to fight back and claim their rightful place in the promised land of the First Division. Promotion is a must for next season I thought. Heads would roll if this wasn't achieved.

The Pride Of Basque Country Part 2

San Sebastian. My House. Later That Night.

I walked in the door. Shocked. Devastated. the whole city seemed to have been plunged into sadness after we exiled to the depths of Liga BBVA. It wasn't only the fact that we were down. it was the fact that Athletic had stayed up. How had they. They employ a Basque only policy and they still stay up. Its amazing how they do it. Heart breaking to know that they can actually produce results from it. We used to be the same, a basque only policy. Now look at us. Exiled to Liga BBVA. I spat. I walked over to my windows and looked out over the neighborhood. There were little kids playing football in the street. One of them was wearing a Kovacevic Number Nine tee shirt. I wonder if they knew that their hero had played his last game for the club. Probably not. looking at the kids faces, the enjoyment etched on their faces, they didn't know that Sociedad had been relegated. I longed for that youthful bliss. Unaware of the troubles our beloved club was going through. I turned my head away from the game on the street and cast a glance around the rest of the neighborhood. Thats when I saw just how much the relegation of the team had hurt the people of San Sebastien. I saw a man of no-more than twenty drinking straight from a bottle of vodka, staring absent-mindedly at the Nihat tee shirt he was holding in his hand. Tears streaking down his face. That was when I realised that the team was much bigger than just an excuse to get away from work, away from reality for ninety minutes. Real Sociedad was a way of life. It meant so much for the fans to be able to say that they had survived the Howard Kendall reign. Or that they had seen John Aldridge play. In the first division. Now we were in the Liga BBVA I didn't know what was going to happen. One thing was definite however. I was going to put everything in my body into turning the fortunes of Real Sociedad around. Whether that be by contributing money. Cleaning boots of the players. I don't know. But I will be there to help the team. In one way or another.

Coming soon - My mid season update, The Pride Of Basque Country Part 3.